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KEY MOMENTS
* Alpine driver Esteban Ocon took his first ever Formula 1 win at a dramatic
Hungarian Grand Prix, which originally started with all the field (apart
from Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi) on Cinturato Green intermediates in
wet conditions. A collision at the first corner brought out a red flag,
during which teams were allowed to change tyres and repair any damage.
* Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who led the field away for the re-start,
was the only competitor to keep the intermediates and start from the grid,
while all the other drivers came into the pits for medium tyres. Hamilton
then pitted for mediums too at the end of the first racing lap following the
re-start, rejoining last but eventually finishing third after an early
switch to hard followed by a final run on mediums.
* Ocon effectively re-started on the P Zero Yellow medium C3 tyre after the
second formation lap and then switched to the P Zero White hard C2 on lap
37, one lap after Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, who finished a close
second on an identical strategy.
* After record-breaking temperatures on Friday and warm conditions
yesterday, the weather completely changed today with rain and 28 degrees
ambient, plus 32 degrees of track temperature at the start of the race. The
track then warmed up considerably after few laps, peaking at 40 degrees of
asphalt temperature.
HOW EACH TYRE PERFORMED
HARD C2: Used by most drivers for the second part of the race, with some
drivers completing nearly 50 laps on this compound.
MEDIUM C3: The first driver to use the medium was Giovinazzi, who gambled on
moving to a slick after the original formation lap. Everyone then used the
medium after the re-start, with Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen
selecting it also for the final stint. Alpine’s Fernando Alonso went
furthest on it, completing a 36-lap opening stint.
SOFT C4: Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly were the
only drivers to use the soft during the race, for the final stint. Gasly
claimed an extra championship point by virtue of setting fastest lap with
it. The unpredictable nature of the race favoured the harder compounds,
which were able to provide better graining resistance.
MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF F1 AND CAR RACING
“Even before the race start it was hard to make any predictions, so the race
began as a complete step into the unknown today, with the drivers having no
reference point for the conditions they faced this afternoon. The amount of
water meant that the intermediates were the clear choice to originally start
the race with, but with the track drying rapidly following the red flag
delay, it effectively became a dry race after the re-start. If we just
consider this as the ‘real’ race, some drivers selected a medium-hard
one-stopper while others like Hamilton and Verstappen – who were running out
of position due to the unusual race circumstances – went for a two-stop
‘sprint’ strategy. Congratulations to Esteban Ocon and Alpine for their
first win.” |